


Mistress of Her Fate

by SelenaTerna



Series: Time Petals Prompt Fics [13]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Episode Fix-It: s02e13 Doomsday, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 08:01:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11664963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SelenaTerna/pseuds/SelenaTerna
Summary: "It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves." Julius Caesar (Act 1, Scene 2)What if Rose and Jackie had taken their destiny into their own hands? How might things have changed? A doomsday fixit.





	Mistress of Her Fate

**Author's Note:**

> Hello lovelies! So I'm a little nervous to present to you my very first Doomsday fixit (proper). I've been quite shy about writing one of these because there are so many AMAZING fixits out there, but after a month of agonising, here it is on the very last day of Doomsday month. I hope you like my little attempt at fixing this agonising episode!
> 
> This is also for the TPP Doomsday free-for-all on Tumblr and the doctorroseprompts doomsday month prompt.
> 
> Also a huge thanks to mountaingirlheidi for the quick beta! <3

“That’s why you’ve got to go.”

_“Reboot in two minutes.”_

“Back to Pete's world. Hey, we should call it that- Pete's World!” the Doctor babbled. “I'm opening the Void, but only on this side. You'll be safe on that side.”

Rose stared at the Doctor. “What, you want me to go back there, _forever_ , an’ you stay here? Forget it!”

The Doctor looked away. “But you’d be safe. If you stay here, you could get pulled into the Void!”

“Yeah, an’ how’s that so different for us, then? “ she demanded. “Lava, spaceships, the Void-’s what we do! So why the hell would I leave you an’ everythin’ I know to get stuck in some mirror-world?”

The Doctor finally looked her in the eye. “Because you’d be safe there. And with your family!”

“It’s where the Cybermen came from in the first place!” she said disbelievingly. “How d’you know there’s not some still there? An’ what if somethin’ goes wrong today? How d’you know the Daleks won’t be able to break through the void over there?”

“I don’t, but -”

Rose cut him off.  “An’ my _family_ is here.” She looked pointedly at Pete. “You said it yourself, Doctor- gingerbread houses. ’S not my universe and he’s _not_ my dad.” Shaking her head, she glared at the Time Lord. “So get this through your head- I’m stayin’. You’re _not_ alone anymore, Doctor and this is _our_ fight, for our universe, our home. Don’t you dare try and take that away from me. I’m _choosin’_ this. I’m choosin’ _you_.”

Jackie immediately turned to Pete. “I'm not going without her.”

“Mum.” Rose swallowed. “I…you know that I love you?”

Jackie glared at her daughter. “I’m not goin’ without you, so don’t you give me that, Rose Marion Tyler!”

_“Reboot in one minute.”_

“Oh, my God. We're going!” Pete shouted.

Jackie shouted right back. “I've had twenty years without you, so button it! I'm not leaving her!”

“We’re all going!” Pete moved to put a medallion over Jackie’s head and she slapped him. Hard.

“You heard her! An’ d’you think I’d go and leave her here? What’s wrong with you?” she fumed. “She's your _daughter_!

Pete gave her a hard look. “She's _your_ daughter, not mine. Now put this on! That's an order.”

Jackie stared at him. “You can take your order and shove it right up your arse! Give me _orders,_ will you?!”

Rose cut in. “But mum, if you go with him, you’ll have another chance, you can have a good life. He wants you.”

Jackie took her daughter’s hand. “But not _you_ . He said it- you’re not his daughter.  And you’re right- he’s not your father.” She turned to the red-headed man.  “My Pete wasn’t some posh businessman but he was a better man than you’ll ever be. He gave his life for a daughter he didn’t know.” She glared at him. “You treated her like she was _nothin’_. Well, to hell with you! If you don’t want my daughter, then you don’t want me!” Catching sight of the Doctor sneaking up behind Rose, she whipped Rose out of the way. “And the same goes for you! She’s not some puppet you can toss away when you feel like it!”

The Doctor stared at them open-mouthed, the medallion hanging uselessly in his hand. “I- I just want you to be safe, Rose. I _need_ you to be safe.”

Rose took a deep breath, trying to hold in the anger and betrayal she felt at his trying send her away against her will. Ignoring him, she turned to her mother. “Are you sure, mum? There’s no goin’ back if you stay. And…and I’m not going to suddenly come back to the flat, you know.”

Jackie took her daughter’s hand. “I’m sure, love. _This_ is my home- with you and my friends and my dinky council flat. And Himself, even when he deserves a good slap.”

The Doctor was trembling, his eyes swirling with anger and fear. “Jackie, Rose, there’s only seconds left, you need to need to go _now_ ! _Please_!”

Rose refused to look at him.

In the end, it was Mickey who broke the stalemate.

“Right, boss, gotta go.” He smiled at Rose and tossed a cheeky salute. “Take care, babe.”

With the punch of a button, he vanished.

Pete turned to Jackie. “Jacks….I….we could try….. please, come with me.”

She shook her head. “You’re not my Pete, an’ I’m not your Jackie. I belong here.”

He sighed heavily and gave them a weary smile. “Right. Good…good luck, then. Both of you.” He nodded once to the Doctor and hit the button, disappearing.

_“Systems rebooted. Open access.”_

The Doctor swallowed and turned to Rose, eyes wild. “Rose…”

“Not now.” She swallowed, trying to keep her own anger down. “Later. We have work to do, yeah?”

He nodded, his face closing off as he dropped the medallion to the floor. “Right, yeah. What’s done is done.”

Rose glared at his accusing tone before Jackie broke into the heavily charged situation. “Right. What we doing then?”

“Rose, set the coordinates to six. All of them.”

“Right.” She turned to the computers and set to work. Peering at the screen, she tensed. “We've got Cybermen on the way up!”

The Doctor cursed and starting fixing the clamps to the wall in front of the levers. “How many floors down?”

“Just one.”

Giving the last clamp a firm tug, he turned to her. “Right, when it starts, hold tight to this, Rose and don’t let go!”

“What about me?” Jackie demanded. “You said I don’t have that…that void stuff. ’S’at mean I can move around then?”

“Right you are, Jackie! You won’t feel the pull at all. Just stay well back from that hole, try not to fall in and you’ll be fine.”

Jackie’s eyes grew wide and she gaped at him, obviously having come to a realisation of some kind. “You’re a bleedin' _idiot_!"

“Yes, yes, right, Cybermen on the way up, so can we shelve the discussion about my supposed lack of intellect ’til later?” The Doctor looked at her pointedly.

Jackie glared back at him, furious. “What, you’re just goin’ to hold on to those glorified paper clips?”

The Doctor glared. “What, and you have a better idea?”

“Never heard of a _rope_ in outer space, then, ‘ave you?” she demanded as the noise of the Cybermen down the corridor became louder.

The Doctor blinked. “I didn’t think of that.” He shook his head. “Too late now! Get back Jackie, here they come!”

Jackie walked to Rose’s clamp and waited, still glaring and muttering. “Thought ‘e was s’posed to be a bleedin’ genius and he misses the bleedin’ obvious.”

Rose suppressed a snort, knowing full well what her mother was so worked up about. She’d already gathered that Jackie could do what neither the Doctor nor Rose could and move freely about the room once the Void was opened. She was an _advantage_ in this mess and it had been stupid to try to send her away. It was just another reason Rose was furious with the Doctor.

_“Levers operational.”_

“D’you _mind_ , Jackie?” The Doctor snapped. “We’re hanging for our lives here! We need to get these levers upright and send the lot back through the void!” He turned to Rose, his eyes bright with anticipation and suppressed emotion. “Push the red button.” Noticing her stony expression, he gave her a small grin. “Come on Rose, it’s the old team! Hope and Glory, Mutt and Jeff, Shiver and Shake!”

In spite of her anger, she smiled a little, unable to help it in the face of that grin she loved so much. “Which one’s Shiver?”

He grinned, widely this time. “Oh, I’m Shake.” They grinned at each other for a moment longer before he shook himself at a noise from the stairwell. “Right. When it starts, just hold on tight. Shouldn't be too bad for us but the Daleks and the Cybermen are steeped in Void stuff. Are-are you ready?”

“ _Breach active. It is the Doctor. Exterminate him!”_

 _“_ Yeah,” Rose swallowed, her eyes on the horde of Daleks hovering just outside the tower windows. “So are they.”

The Doctor looked coldly out at the intruders, the fury of the storm in his eyes. “Right. Let’s do this!”

With one last look at each other, they pushed the levers upright and grabbed hold of the magna clamps. Jackie stared wide-eyed at the Daleks outside the window before shuddering and wrapping her arms around Rose.

“You don’t let go,” she said fiercely to her daughter. “No matter what! You understand? You hold onto this bloody paperclip until it’s over.”

Rose managed to grin as the computer announced “ _Online!”_

The breach opened and an overpowering gale whirled into the room, sucking almost everything into the gaping chasm below. The screaming Daleks closest to the windows were immediately sucked in before a stream of Cybermen followed them.

“The breach is open!” The Doctor crowed, his eyes alight with excitement and triumph. “Into the Void! _Ha!”_

The Genesis Ark was sucked in as the large black Dalek near the window screamed “Emergency temporal shift!” and disappeared.

Everything was going well and it was almost done. Just a few more minutes and it would all be over, Rose thought to herself as she clung to the clamp, gritting her teeth against the gale, her mother’s arms wrapped tightly around her. Just a little bit longer.

Suddenly, to her horror, a Dalek smacked into the lever nearest to her and it slipped, a little. Only a little, but it was enough to disrupt the entire system.

_“Offline.”_

Looking over at the Doctor, she knew he’d never be able to reach it. The wind was dying down and they had so little time- if she let go of her clamp she might just be able to reach it…

“No, Rose, _no!”_ The Doctor shouted, eyes wide with terror. He knew exactly what was going through her mind, knew she wouldn’t be able to leave things alone, that she would try to fix the lever.

And if Rose had been alone, that’s exactly what would have happened. She would have let go of the clamp and reached for the lever. The wind would have come back in full force and maybe, just maybe, she wouldn’t have been able to hold on.

But he’d forgotten one very important fact; Rose Tyler was _not_ alone.

“Don’t you dare move, either of you!” Jackie growled. “You stay put, Rose- _I’ll_  put it upright.” And with that, she marched to the lever and locked it back into position.

“ _Online and locked.”_

The powerful suction instantly returned and the Cybermen and Daleks were once more being pulled into the Void. Jackie stood far back from the breach, watching the two figures buffeted by the wind and clinging to their clamps as creatures from a science fiction movie sailed past.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity to Rose, arms sore with clinging to the clamp, the last of the invaders were sucked in and the void collapsed in on itself.

“ _Systems closed_.”

Unable to hold on any longer, Rose dropped to the floor, the white wall intact and pristine, with no sign of the hole between universes that had been opened.

“Rose!”

The Doctor dropped to the floor and scrabbled over to her, seizing her in his shaking arms and grasping her tightly to him.

She clung to him just as fiercely for a moment, inhaling his scent and reassuring herself that he was _there_ before pushing him back and looking for Jackie.

She found her mother standing against the wall, her eyes full of tears as she watched them. Forcing herself to stand, she made her way over.

“Mum?”

Jackie and tried to smile, pulling her daughter into a fierce embrace. “I’m alright, love.”

“No, you’re not,” Rose said softly, pulling back. “Don’t even try and tell me that.”

Jackie wiped at her eyes. “I am. It’s been a day, love. An’ I….I just…I never expected to see that face again." Smiling tremulously at her daughter, she sniffed. “It wasn’t him, I know that. But it was hard to see his face.” Taking a deep shuddering breath, she rubbed her arms. “I’m glad ‘e’s gone. I don’t think I could have looked at that face every day, seein’ him but not him. Not _my_ Pete.”

Taking another deep breath, she turned to the Doctor. “’S it over?”

“Yes,” he said quietly, hands in pockets, still looking at Rose. “It’s over.” He blinked, eyes suddenly wide. “The…the storm. It’s gone. It’s passed.”

“Right.” Another sniff. “Then let’s get back to that bloody box of yours and you can get us out of ‘ere. I want to go home.”

With that, she made her way out of the room, presumably heading to the basement they had left the TARDIS in.

Rose took a deep breath and started to follow her, unable to face everything that had happened all at once. She wanted time to calm her nerves, her anger, her _relief_ that she was still with the Doctor. She loved him, had loved him since a grieving man with a daft grin had clutched her hand in a basement in Cardiff and she needed time to come to terms with the fact that he’d tried to send her away again, that things could have turned out very differently today. She’d long ago accepted that their relationship might never change, that it might be forever platonic, that he might never even feel that way about her, but his actions today had come too close abandonment, even betrayal, and it _hurt_. It was all too much and she needed time.

“Rose.”

She didn’t answer and kept walking.

“Rose? Rose, _please_. Say something.”

She stopped. “What d’you want me to say?”

She heard him swallow. “Anything. Please, Rose, I just…I nearly lost you today. I could have lost you. The timelines…Please don’t….”

Her heart broke at the agony in his voice, even as her own hurt rose to the surface.

“Rose, please, just…what are you thinking?”

She turned to face him, numbness warring with fury. “D’you want me to leave?”

“Why would you say that?” he demanded in shock. “ _Why?”_

She glared at him, the anger churning in her gut. “I dunno, must have got my wires crossed what with you tryin’ to send me away against my will. _Again_. Silly me.”

His eyes were full of remembered fear. “I needed you to be safe, Rose!”

“You didn’t even know if it was safe there!” she shouted, unable to hold in her anger any longer. “You don’t know if there are Cybermen still there, or Daleks or God knows what! You were just goin’ to trap me there in that mirror hell with _no way back!_ ”

“I didn’t have a choice!” he shouted back. “It was the safest option at the time! You could have fallen, Rose! You could have fallen into the void!”

“You didn’t even try to think of another way!” she growled. “You could've found a bleedin’ _rope_ or somethin', like mum said! And Mum! You were all set to send her away, and she wound up savin’ us both today! She was the only one who didn’t have void stuff! What would you have done when the lever failed? Both bloody universes might have collapsed because you couldn’t fix the walls!” She glared at him. “And havin’ no choice? It wasn’t your choice to make, Doctor! It was _hers_ and _mine_! You could have doomed both universes or stuck me in that hell-hole for the rest of my life and for what? Because you’re an arrogant wanker who thinks he’s knows what’s best for everyone?”

“I thought you’d be happy there,” the Doctor said weakly. “I didn’t want you to go, I really didn’t, but I wanted you safe and I thought you’d be happy there with your- with your mum and dad.”

“Is this some kind of _game_ to you?” Rose demanded incredulously. “Am I some kind of sick entertainment?”

“What? Of course not! How could you-”

“ _Your father's dead. He died when you were six months old. That is not your Pete. That is_ **_a_ ** _Pete! Parallel world, gingerbread house! We need to get out of here as fast as we can!”_ She recited mockingly. “Sound familiar? And now suddenly he’s my ‘family’? The same arsehole who didn’t want to know me when we were there? One minute we need to get out of there before the multiverse collapses ‘cause we don’t belong there and the next I’m s’posed to live there forever? Just how stupid d’you think I am?” she seethed.

His face was pale. “Rose, I didn't think that-”

“No, you didn’t think, you _never_ think! This is France all over again!  Just dump me, jump and hope for the best!  D’you even care how miserable I would have been there?”

“Of course I care!”

“Yeah? Then why’d you try to send me off behind my back to some mirror world? I don’t even exist there, Doctor! God knows what it would have done to that universe! And even without that, my friends are here! My family is _here_ ! And my home is here! The TARDIS is my _home_ , you bleedin’ wanker!” she shouted.  “ _You’re_ here! My whole life is fucking here!”

The Doctor stood frozen, pale and silent in the face of her emotions.

Rose was shaking now, tears of rage and betrayal trailing down her cheeks. “You just tried to pretend that…that _man_ was my dad! How fucking _dare_ you? You’ve met my dad! My dad was a hero! He loved me even when he didn’t know why! He gave himself up for me, knew I was his daughter even when he’d never heard of aliens or parallel worlds or time travel and baby me was in the next room! _That_ Pete Tyler was my dad. That…that copy you wanted to send me off with didn’t even want to know me! He knows about aliens and time travel and weird technology and he still didn’t want to know me! You heard ‘im- he said I wasn’t his daughter! And you wanted me to _stay_ with ‘im?” She wiped roughly at her eyes.

“Rose.” His voice was hoarse now, his eyes wide with horror as the full import of his actions, of what he had almost condemned her to, hit him.

She shook her head, her face blotchy and red. “Just…just tell me the truth. No half-arsed excuses, no placatin’.” She looked him dead in the eye., “D’you want me to go? Is that it? D’you want me to leave?”

 _“NO!”_ He shouted, grabbing her by the shoulders. “No, Rose! Don’t! Please don’t!”

“They _why_ did you try to send me away? Why do you keep tryin’ to make decisions for me? Why did you try to feed me some half-arsed story about him bein’ my dad? Why didn’t you care what it would have done to me bein’ stuck there?”

“Oh Rose,” he rasped, blinking furiously. “It was never about being rid of you or..or not caring… I swear, I-I just wanted to keep you safe!”

She shook her head, pushing at his hands. “That doesn’t hold up, Doctor.’

He held onto her more firmly, his eyes wild with panic. “I swear to you Rose, that’s all it was! I…I knew the risks if you stayed and I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you!”

“So it’s about _you_ then, about makin’ yourself feel better. You just decided to ignore what I said and send me off into the unknown with no way back so you could pretend I was safe and you could make yourself feel better?” she demanded. “Is that it? And that’s sayin’ nothin’ of the complete disaster that could have happened today! What would have happened if mum hadn’t reset that lever and closed the void?”

He shook his head impatiently. “I know, it seems daft now, but I panicked- all I knew was I had to get you of here!”

“That’s not your call to make, Doctor!” she told him fiercely. “It’s _mine_!”

He jerked his head up. “You can’t ask me to watch you sail into danger, Rose! Not when I can prevent it!”

“Yeah? Well, I have news for you Doctor- you can’t stop me livin’, and you can’t stop me makin’ my choices either. And you know what? The safest place in the universe is with _you_!”

He shook his head, his gaze heavy with shame. “Since I’ve come into your life, Rose, I’ve done nothing but put you in danger!”

“Yeah? Where d’you think I’d be if I hadn't met you?” she demanded. “I would’ve been dead that first night those shop dummies came after me. And for God’s sake Doctor, you know where I lived! I could have been gunned down walkin’ home from work or attacked..or…or worse! Know how many of my friends that happened to?” She growled in frustration. “Why d’you suddenly think my life would be nice and safe without you? I could easily be _dead_ ! There’s a _reason_ my mum is always scared when I’m gone, Doctor! At least with you, I have a chance!” She took a deep breath. “And you know what? I’m not scared of any of that. Not the Daleks, not possessed archeologists in rockets, not walking dummies or creeps on the Estate, or zombies or  cat nuns or werewolves or any of it.” She looked him dead in the eye. “Know what I _am_ scared of?”

He shook his head, his face pale.

“You leavin’ me behind.” He voice trembled. “You tellin’ me you don’t want me anymore and just sendin’ me away. Me losin’ my home.” She wiped at her face. “You and the TARDIS are my home, Doctor, and I’m so scared you’re tryin’ to make me leave!”

“ _No_ , Rose!” Her words seemed to galvanise him into action and he wrapped his arms fiercely about her, so tightly she could barely breathe. “No! Don’t you ever say that!”

She trembled and buried her face into his shoulder for a moment and then pushed back.

He swallowed. “I don’t want you to leave, Rose. I can’t…please, Rose.”

She took a deep breath, her heart twisting at the fear in his voice. She forced herself to be strong, however; she needed to say this. “Then promise me you won’t ever do that again. You can’t ever make my decisions for me again, Doctor. You need to _trust_ me.” She shook her head. “Look what happened because mum and I made our own choices today. Just…just think about what could have happened if we’d listened to you- the bloody world could have ended!”

“Oh, Rose, I _do_ trust you! I _believe_ in you more than I’ve ever believed in anyone or anything!” His hands cupped her face, his eyes reflecting his inner turmoil. “It was never about not trusting you! I was just trying to protect you, and I….I failed to consider all of the possibilities.” He barked a laugh. “Your mum was right- some genius I am.”

She snorted in spite of herself. “There’s something I never thought I’d hear you say.”

“Don’t tell her!”

He looked so terrified that moment that in spite of herself, Rose burst out laughing and leaned into him, inhaling his scent for a moment. His laughter echoed hers a moment later, burying his face in her hair. The vibrations made her shiver.

She drew back first, wiping at her face again. “I mean it though, Doctor. You have to promise me- no more trying to sneak behind my back. No more trying to send me away when I’ve said no. You have to trust me, or….or this isn’t going to work.”

“I _do_ trust you,” he said immediately.

Rose nodded. “Then prove it. Promise me.”

He looked at her, torn. “But what if….”

“No what-if’s, Doctor,” she broke in. “You either trust me or you don’t.”

He took a deep breath. “I…I promise.”

She exhaled in relief, her anger finally dissipating. They’d be OK. She was still hurt, and exhausted and drained after the day they’d had, but they’d be OK. Keeping her love bottled up, settling for a platonic relationship was one thing, but she needed to know she had his trust and respect.

“But that doesn’t mean I won’t try to convince you to go if I think it’s safer for you.”

She gave him a small smile. “Didn’t think you would, but as long as you remember it’s _my_ life and _my choice…”_

He swallowed and nodded. “I promise, Rose.” He slipped his arms about her and pulled her to him again. “I…don’t want to know what I’d look like if I’d lost you. I…need you too much.”

She sniffled into his shoulder, suddenly exhausted after the whirlwind of emotion she’d experienced. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” His voice was thick. “Someone very wise once told me it was better with two.”

She gasped a laugh, wiping at her face again. “’S’at so? Sounds pretty clever.”

“ _Oh_ , she’s clever.” He drew back, looking her in the eye. “And stubborn. And kind. And compassionate. Even put a broken old Time Lord back together and promised him forever. ”

Rose nodded, heart pounding and fixed  her eyes on his face. She wanted to give voice to the feelings in her heart. She wanted to so much...but she pushed it down, choosing the safer option.  “She meant it.”

He smiled- a slow stretching of lips on his still pale face, and she thought he’d never looked more gorgeous. “Even though he’s an arrogant, silly old Time Lord who misses the obvious?”

She smiled. “Yeah, even so.”

He beamed, then- that bright, beautiful smile that both of her Doctors wore and only ever directed at her. It warmed her heart and made her feel light as air. “He’s sorry, you know. He’s so, so sorry that he acted blindly, without listening to her and almost cocked it all up.” He cringed. “Oh, and almost ended two universes.”

Rose laughed. “That comes second, does it?”

“Course it does!” He waggled his eyebrows comically. “What’s a measly multiverse compared with the glory that is Rose Tyler!”

She laughed and hit him in the arm. “Prat.”

“Oi! That’s abuse, that is!”

“Too bad,” she grinned, tongue touching her teeth. “You’re stuck with me and that’s that.”

He grinned, leaning back onto the white wall…and froze, his smile vanishing.

Rose frowned. “Doctor?”

He didn’t move.

Touching his arm gently, she tried again. “Doctor?”

He still didn’t move.

“Doctor?”

Still nothing.

Just as she reached out to pinch him, he suddenly snapped out of whatever trance he was in and lunged towards her.

“Doctor? Wh- _mmf_!”

His lips stopped anything she might have said as they ferociously devoured her own. She froze in momentary surprise before two years of pent up love and desire had her pushing past her it and responding.  They stood there for what seemed forever, tasting and devouring, saying with their actions what both had been too terrified to say in words.

Finally, the need for air made her tear her lips away, and she stood with her forehead against his, gasping for air. “Where’d that come from, then?”

“I love you.”

“What?” she gasped, pulling back slightly. He couldn’t have said that. He couldn’t have. She must have misheard.

“Rose Tyler, I love you.”

She stared at him, her eyes wide and her heart pounding. “Don’t-don’t say it if you don’t mean it, Doctor. _Please_.”

“I mean it.” His voice was low, suddenly _intense_ , having nothing of the lightness of the previous moment, and his eyes were fixed unwaveringly on hers. “I love you.”

This time, it was Rose who rushed at him and covered his mouth with her own, pouring her love and relief and confusion into the kiss, and he responded instantly, hungrily.

When they finally drew apart, the Doctor was sporting a ridiculously goofy grin. “Does that mean you might tolerate me a _little_ in return?”

She laughed in utter bafflement, her mind in confusion after all of the emotional upheavals today. “ _Yes_ , you bloody arsehole! I…I love you!”

Then she promptly burst into tears, burying her face in his shoulder.

“Quite right too,” he told her, his own voice suspiciously thick.

“Git,” she sniffled into his shoulder. Finally managing to pull herself together, she pulled back a little, still firmly in the circle of his arms. He didn’t seem all that inclined to let her go. “‘M sorry, it’s just….today….’s been a bit much, you know?”

“Yeah.” He gave her a rueful grin. “I know.”

“Seriously, though, Doctor. Where did you that come from? I never thought you’d…I thought you’d never…I thought, maybe, you didn’t-”

He smiled somewhat sadly. Later, much later, he’d tell her what he’d seen as they lay sated in his bed, now _their_ bed. He’d tell her of the alternative timeline he’d glimpsed as he’d leaned against the blank white wall, of the desolation he’d felt at the thought of losing her. He’d tell her how his alternate self had leaned against the now hated wall, desperate to feel something, _anything_ , of her and how, for moment, he almost thought he had. He’d tell her how he’d seen himself make his lonely way out of Torchwood, how he’d tried and searched until he’d found a way to reach her, if only briefly. He’d tell her of burning up a sun to say goodbye, of a lonely beach in Norway, her tears breaking his own hearts, her halting words and his ridiculous stalling costing him the chance to return them, the failing connection cutting him off at the crucial moment.

Later. He would tell her all that, and much more besides, _later_ and she would comfort him.

But now, he simply said, “If there’s one thing I’ve learned today, Rose, it's not to waste the time I have, the time _we_ have.”

She looked at him, knowing there was much more to it than that but he shook his head. “Not here. We should go before the authorities turn up.”  He dropped his arms and held out a hand. “Come on, then.”

Rose paused for a moment and looked at the wall behind him. Something  about the wall had upset him and unthinking, she reached out a hand to touch the wall, only for the Doctor to catch it in his own.

“No touch,” he said, looking at her with heavy eyes. “Not that. I…please, Rose. Too many ghosts, here.”

Nodding slowly, she she slipped her hand into his and tugged at him. “Come on then, slow poke.”

He relaxed slightly, some of the tension bleeding from him. “Oi! Who you callin’ slow then?” He grinned, sounding very much like his former, Northern, self.

Seeing him relax as they moved further away from the wall, she knew she’d made the right choice not to push it. She chortled and leaned her head on his arm, feeling very, very tired as they made their way out of the room and towards the lift and her mother and the TARDIS.

Their home.

“So, what now?” She asked him, not sure whether she meant about _them_ and this new development or where they were going next.

Or both.

“Same old life.” He nudged her shoulder with a gentle smile. “We’ve got the TARDIS. Last of the Time Lords and my favourite pink and yellow human. Got work to do.”

“But not on your own,” she told him, smiling with a deep certainty.

They’d beaten the storm.

“No,” he said, his own smile brighter than a supernova. “Never alone. How...how long are you going to stay with me?”

She smiled at him and gave the same answer she always would. “Forever.”

A few minutes later, a strange grinding sound filled the basement in Torchwood tower and they were off.

Rose Tyler and the Doctor in the TARDIS, as it should be.

_Fin_

  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments, I'm at countessselena.tumblr.com


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